


A Baby Is Forever

by PostApocolypticAlien



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Highschool AU, Teen Pregnancy, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:08:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24271837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PostApocolypticAlien/pseuds/PostApocolypticAlien
Summary: •	Prompt request for AU where Mulder gets Scully pregnant in high school and they are ‘forced’ to marry but fall in love.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 59
Kudos: 161





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of Mulder and Scully being married, I really did like this prompt.

When she thought of this moment, she imagined she would be married, in a stable career that would allow her to take time off or to reduce the number of hours she would be working. She imagined there would be smiles from everyone, it would be the second happiest day of her life.

She never thought she would be fifteen years old, having just begun her sophomore year of high school. It was difficult to comprehend. 

But the two lines on her fourth pregnancy test tell her what she needs to know: she’s pregnant and she has no idea what to do about that.

A less rational side of her brain wants to tell her that maybe if she ignores it, it will go away. But no, she took Biology, she knows this will do the opposite of going away- it will grow and continue growing for nine months until that final day when out pops a baby. A baby that will need to be cared for, a baby that she will be stuck for the next eighteen years of it and her life.

The stall suddenly seems small and claustrophobic. She wants to go home but she still has a full day of school left and she should have waited until she was home.

She stands, furiously wiping away the tears that have begun to form in her eyes.

“Dana, what are you doing in there?” Ellen’s voice calls.

Dana grabs her bag, throwing the pregnancy test inside it, not trusting it to be left in the trash can. She exits the stall.

“I thought you fell down or something,” Ellen says with a smile in her words. Dana sniffles force out a tiny giggle in response yet she feels far from laughing. 

“What’s wrong?” Ellen asks, missing nothing.

Dana takes her head as she turns on the faucet. “Nothing, I’m fine,” she says, washing her hands.

“You don’t look fine.”

No, she doesn’t, Dana realises looking at herself in the mirror. Her eyes are red, lashes partially wet, face flushed. She looks like somebody who’s just found out the biggest news of her life.

Maybe she should tell Ellen. Ellen is her best friend, she wouldn’t judge or think any less of her. She might even help her when the time comes. But Ellen is also fifteen. All she cares about is what’s the best hairspray can to use, or who performed on Top of the Pops last night. She’s no fit to take care of a baby any more than Dana is.

So Dana remains quiet. She finishes up with an answer that hangs heavy in her stomach.

“It’s just hay fever.”

Ellen seems satisfied with her answer and they leave the bathroom, the secret pregnancy test hidden away in her bag.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

She can’t focus.

She can’t continue with her life as if nothing has changed. She ate dinner with her family- Mom, Bill, Missy, Charlie, all sat around the table, conversations as normal as they were last week. Dana had sat there quiet, not eating much but enough for nobody to think something was amiss. She wanted to tell her mom. Every time she went to, every time she looked towards her, all she could imagine was the disappointment evident across her face. Besides, she couldn’t say anything with Bill there.

So she promised herself that after dinner, once everyone had gone from the dining room, Dana would speak to her then and tell. Dinner had come and gone and Dana still hadn’t spoken to her mother.

The pregnancy test was still buried at the bottom of her bag in her bedroom and Dana was sat in the bathroom, unable to focus, just thinking, and thinking some more.

Perhaps she could get rid of it. It’s just a foetus, not like it’s a real person yet. It would easy and the doctors don’t have to tell anyone, they’re sworn to confidentially, nobody has to know.

But her Catholic guilt gnaws at her, thinking of what her Sunday School teacher said about how every life is a life from the start of conception and how can Dana even think of killing it? 

She keeps it.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Her mother is silent. Dana is crying. The pregnancy test sits limply between her fingers.

No, she never imagined this day turning out like this.

Where are the smiles? The happiness? The joyful congratulations? They don’t come to fifteen-year-old girls who make mistakes.

“Do you know who the father is?” her mother finally asks.

Dana nods her head.

“Does he know?”

Dana shakes her head. Her mother sighs.

“This is…a lot,” 

Dana swallows, the lump big and heavy in her throat. Her eyes fall to the pregnancy test, to the two lines that tell her future. Fresh tears start to fall.

“I’m sorry,” she cries. 

Maggie’s there, sitting beside her and pulling Dana into her whilst she continues to cry, regretting every choice made.

“I’ll need to talk to your father,” her mother says.

This is really what Dana was afraid of. Her mom was one thing, but her dad…He would kill her.

Dana starts furiously shaking her head, crying more.

“I have to, Dana,” Maggie says, trying to calm her. “You can’t hide this from him.”

It was true. Ahab was back in three months, staying for another four months, before going back again. She’ll be seven months pregnant and, without a doubt, showing.

“What’s he going to say?” Dana asks.

“I don’t know,” her mom admits. “But we’ll figure it out. We’re not going to leave you on your own with this.”

It’s some consolation, Dana thinks.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, part 2.

“Just fireball him!”

“No, it will kill him.”

“Good. That’s what we want to do.”

“No, it’s better to take him hostage so we can find out there  
the others are.”

“What makes you think there are others?”

“There are always others,” Mulder says. 

Dana approaches the door to the classroom. Her hunch about Mulder being in the games room was right. He’s there along with Langly, Frohike, and Byers. She knocks against the open door, not wanting to intrude but needing to speak with Mulder.

They all turn towards the door and Mulder’s face lights up when he sees her.

“Scully!” he shouts, standing up from his chair and heading towards her, all long-limbs bashing against chairs along the way. “You want to play?” he asks.

Dana takes her head. “I need to talk to you actually.”

“What about?”

She glances nervously at the Gunmen who sit staring and listening in. This isn’t something she wants them to know yet.

Mulder, realising, turns back to his friends. “I’ll be back in a minute.” 

Once out of the doorway and tucked away in a corner, Dana feels like she can finally tell him. 

“So, what is?” he asks.

She does one final sweep of the corridor, making sure that there was nobody around and sighs. Mulder waits expectantly, all hunched over, unused to his lankiness, hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall, eyes boring into hers. 

Could they do it, Dana wonders? By some miracle, could they raise a baby and do it well? Part of her thinks maybe they could.

“Mulder…” at the last second she pulls her eyes away, focusing upon something on the floor. “I’m pregnant.”  


There’s a pause. Dana slowly moves her eyes back to meet his and she catches the moment the floor drops from beneath him, the way his own eyes widen as they move to her stomach. 

“You’re…” He frowns, thinking. “And it’s…It’s mine?” He meets her eyes and Dana nods. She’s 100% certain of that.

“But…we- I pulled out. You said…How?”

“There’s always that chance,” Dana says.

“A baby…” A small smile breaks across his face. “What are you gonna do with it?”

“I’m keeping it.” 

Perhaps she’s a little too quick, a little too certain, but this is her baby and nobody is taking it away from her. 

“Okay,” says Mulder, nodding.

They stand in awkward silence for a moment, neither one knowing what to say next.

“So…” Mulder begins.

“I just thought you had a right to know,” says Dana, cutting him off.

Mulder nods again. “Well, …thanks.”

She smiles more awkwardness.

“I should probably get back before the Gunmen decide to kill the Sorcerer,” he says.

Dana nods, amazed at out he’s just going to go back to his life even after this surprise. She guesses he has that option unlike her.

“Have fun,” Dana says.

Before he goes, however, he asks. “Scully, will I be a part of the baby’s life?”

Dana thinks for a moment before answering as honestly as she can. 

“I don’t know, Mulder.”

Mulder nods and they both part their ways.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

There will be no white dresses. No months of preparations, no handwritten invitations. She wouldn’t even be married in a church.

It was a lot to take in at first, just as everything concerning this pregnancy has, but Dana understood, it was a marriage of necessity, and Dana knew better than to argue.

Ahab hadn’t been pleased. The moment Maggie called him he was getting on the first flight back home. When he got home, he took one look at Dana and disappeared upstairs. A few hours later, he came back down with an action plan: Dana was getting married in November, no objections were to be made.

She sits in her living room; she sat on one couch, Mulder sat on the other. Muffled voices drift in from the kitchen, an occasional rise of a voice. Dana plays with her fingers in her lap. It was strange not to be apart of a meeting that concerned you.

“My parents were shocked when I told them,” Mulder says. 

They had been sat in silence, for the most part, only now choosing to speak. “They thought I was joking.”

Dana smiles slightly, a quick movement of her lips before her expression resumes to how it was.

“Mine was just disappointed. They still are.”

Mulder smiles sadly. 

They fall quiet once more. They weren’t that close but there had been an equal attractive before, that is was lead to this after all but then it fizzled out, they made a promise that it wouldn’t happen again. Yet, now they’re having a baby, now they’re to be married. What does that mean for their relationship? For any future relationships? Dana doesn’t want to think about it…

“I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday,” Dana says.

Mulder looks worried. “Is something wrong?”

She smiles. “No,” she says, shaking her head. “It’s just a  
check-up. We get to see the baby, too.”

“We?” 

Dana nods. “I want you to come with me.”

“Really?” he almost sounds surprised.

Dana nods again. She decided soon after telling him about the baby that she did want him to be apart of it. Somehow, they’ll work it out. It’s as much his baby as it is hers and she shouldn’t keep it away from him.

Mulder looks to the floor then nods. “Sure,” he says smiling.

The kitchen door opens, with the Mulders exiting first looking unhappy about whatever they’ve just been speaking about. 

“It’s for the best,” Dana’s father says. Mr. Mulder just hums, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Mulder grabs his bag, says goodbye to Dana with a promise that he’ll be there Thursday and leaves with his parents. 

Once gone, Dana looks towards her father who smiles.

“They agreed to the marriage,” is all he says before disappearing off.

It’s happening.

.:.:.:.:.:.

He wonders what he’s supposed to wear to these appointments.

Does he dress up nicely or just as he normally would? Should he make a good impression? They’ll be judged because they're young, he shouldn’t make it worse by turning up looking like a scruff. Should he leave his glasses. They make him look younger than he is. But if he does that he might not be able to see the baby.

Mulder stops.

The baby. Their baby to be exact. It still makes him giddy, still has a big grin forming across his face at the thought. He had gone back into the games room with a massive smile on his face after being told the news. The Gunmen had looked at strangely, asked what was making him so happy, but Mulder couldn’t tell them so he made some lie up.

Scully said she liked me.

It wasn’t that far from the truth.

But a baby. An actual little human growing inside Scully that belongs to him. He could laugh.

He wasn’t so cool on the marriage. Some warped arranged marriage that he only ever heard happen in History way back. People have babies unmarried all the time, right? Why couldn’t that just apply to them, too? But if the marriage was to happen then he’d do it, for the little human.

He’s scared, though. Imagines Scully’s probably even more scared. They’re really about to be responsible for a human. 

Of course, that’s if Scully allows him to even be involved. He has his hopes, supported by being allowed to go to this appointment with her. He doesn’t want to mess it up. 

Doesn’t want to do anything that will make her think that he isn’t ready. He wants to be ready. He wants to do this.

.:.:.:.:.:.

The doctor is nice enough. If she knows, she makes no comment about their ages, she just smiles at them when they enter and waits for Scully to climb onto the chair.

Mulder has no idea where he’s supposed to go. Mrs. Scully sits on the only other chair in the room and Mulder’s left to stand awkwardly in the middle. He thinks he should stand near the wall, be out of the way, and goes to do that when the doctor begins speaking to him.

“You can stand next to her,” she says.

Mulder looks to Scully, seeking her permission. She nods and he moves towards her chair.

With both hands holding onto the inside of the armrest, Scully’s arm lays on the armrest beneath his wrists. He’s mindful of their skin not to touch as the doctor prepares the gel.

“It might be cold,” she says. Scully jumps when the gel makes contact with her skin and laughs slightly.

Mulder’s eyes flick down to her stomach. She had been wearing baggier clothes recently, Mulder had wondered if it was to hide the bump or something but when he looks down he sees that her stomach is still mostly flat. Maybe it’s because she’s self-conscious or something but Mulder wants to tell her she’s beautiful, carrying a baby or not.

“There it is,” the doctor says.

Scully’s hand grips his. His focus is taken from her stomach to her hand holding his. Briefly struck by the image he forgets about the scan until Scully’s squeezing his hand and his eyes move towards the screen.

And…he sees nothing. He squints and still sees nothing.

“Where’s the baby?” he asks.

The doctor- and Scully- laugh.

“It’s too early to see anything yet but it’s in there.” She points to a dot on the screen.

“Oh,” says Mulder. “When will we see the baby?” 

“Come back in twelve weeks, there should be something to see.”

Twelve weeks, that was ages away.

“And we’ll get a picture?” He remembers the pictures. He saw pictures of Sam.

The doctor smiles, “Yes, you’ll get a picture,” she says. 

They leave the room shortly after the doctor has told Scully (and him) that the baby is fine, everything is where it should be. 

Mrs. Scully walks slightly ahead of them and Mulder takes the opportunity to grab Scully’s hand and pull her to the wall. He’s seen the baby now, knows that there really is something growing inside of her, something that they have made together.

He holds her hands in his own, his thumb absent-mindedly rubbing her knuckles, his head bowed down close to hers.

“I promise I’ll do anything for you and this baby,” he says, really trying to mean it. “I’m not going anywhere. I want to be there every step of the way. Every appointment, every moment, I want to be there. I don’t want to miss anything.” He has no idea where this is coming from but he means it, he really, really means it with every word uttered. “And even after, when the baby’s born and it won’t sleep, I want to be there.”

Scully looks up at him, her big blue eyes wide and trusting, believing every word he’s saying.

“I don’t want you to do this alone, Scully,” he whispers.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably my favourite part so far.

It's done. She's married. The paper is signed, no objections, one last question of if she’s been coerced. She hasn’t. Legally, she’s Dana Mulder.

.:.:.:.:.:.

“So we’re married now,” Mulder says.

They sit on a bench outside the registry office. Mulder hunched over and rooting through a bag of sunflower seeds. 

“Yeah,” says Dana. 

She expected to feel different but she didn’t. She had been nervous all morning, unsure of why. It was the first time she’d felt regret over the whole thing. She would never get a real wedding, never be able to have a relationship with anyone else.

Dana had been quiet whilst Melissa had done her hair. Her sister had insisted that since Dana was never going to have a real wedding, she deserved to still look pretty for this one.

The time it look Missy to do Dana’s hair, Dana hadn’t said a word. Only when the last strands of hair were ready to be straightened did Missy ask what was wrong.

Dana told her, focusing upon feeling like she hadn’t been given a choice. They just assumed she was okay with it and that was that.

This train of thought had come after she had been asked if she’d been coerced the first time around. After a bit of hesitation, and a glance towards her father who had stared at her expectantly, Dana had said no. 

She wasn’t so sure anymore and that had been what she told Missy.

Her sister had calmed her fears. Told her that it was just a piece of paper, a way to protect Dana and her baby. Nobody expected them to act married.

It had helped. It got her through the rest of the day.

Now she regards her husband.

“You know Mulder,” she starts and Mulder looks towards her. “You can date other people. I’m not gonna stop you.”

He seems surprised, almost like he wasn’t expecting her to stay that or intending to. She’s taken back a bit by it. She got him into this mess, got him caught up in this whole marriage thing, it’s only right his freedom shouldn’t be taken away.

“Thanks, I guess,” he says a little unsure.

Dana smiles sadly. “I’m sorry,” she apologises. “I’m sorry I got you caught up in this.”

But Mulder is shaking his head. “I helped make that baby too, right?” Dana nods out of reflex. “Then you don’t need to apologise. I meant what I said in the hospital.”

His promise to be there all through it and afterwards.

It was a nice thought but that was now. What about when it’s 3am and the baby is crying because it’s diaper needs changing. Or when it’s crying and they can’t figure out why. Will he still be there then?

Mulder stands, tucking the sunflower seeds into his pocket.

“The same goes for you too…Dana,” her first name is a surprise. “You can date anyone you want to.” 

Unlikely, she thinks. Nobody is going to want someone who already has a baby with another person but the thought is appreciated all the same.

Instead she says, “Scully. You don’t need to start calling me Dana just because we’re married.”

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

Maybe he has been counting down the days. Mentally. He wants to see his baby. Today is that day.

Mulder is more confident in this room now. Mrs Scully chooses to wait outside leaving the chair vacant but Mulder chooses to stand next to Scully again, grabbing hold of her hand.

It’s the only time they ever hold hands. At school, they talk more, sometimes eat lunch together. Through the hallways, he becomes a sort of bodyguard, guiding her through, pulling her back if someone so much as touches her. She has a little bump now, something he’s sure he spent the whole day staring at when he noticed (other’s stare too but Mulder gives them a stare of his own and they back off) Perhaps he’s a little worried that somebody might knock into her, that something will happen to the baby and Mulder will not let that happen.

They never hold hands outside of this room, outside these appointments.

His affection for Scully has grown, he wishes he could see her more than at lunch time and appointments. He wants to spend every second of the day with her. He tried to go round to the Scully’s house one time but Captain Scully told him he couldn’t come in, Dana was resting and Mulder had gone home disappointed.

He got the impression that Captain Scully didn’t like him much. He supposes he can’t blame him, he did get his teenaged daughter pregnant after all.

He holds onto her hand tight, rubbing circles on the inside of her palm with his thumb.

“We get to see the baby today, don’t we?” Mulder says, unable to contain his excitement.

The doctor sees it, too. With a smiles she says, “Yes, Fox. You also get your picture.”

Grinning, he looks at Scully who just rolls her eyes.

The machine is set up, the gel is applied, and Mulder stares with anticipation at the screen. This is the moment he’s been waiting for.

His mouth drops open when the baby- their actual baby- appears on the screen. He’s there. Actually, really there.

Eyes glued to the screen, he brings Scully’s hand to his chest, traps it between both his hands and says.

“That’s our baby, Scully.” 

“Yeah, it is.”

He’s full of amazement.

“Would you like to know the gender?” the doctor asks.

Mulder breaks his gaze from the screen to look at Scully. They had joked about this- Mulder’s insistence of believing it was a he, Scully’s insistence on believing it was a she. It was a running joke between them and Mulder wasn’t ready to break that by finding out.

But if Scully wanted to…

He looks down at her, asking.

But Scully shakes her head. “We want to wait.”

We.

He gets his photo.

His photo. His photo of his baby. 

“He looks like an alien,” Mulder says on the way back home. He hadn’t put the photo away since receiving it.

“That’s mean,” rebukes Scully. “She doesn’t look like an alien.”

“He does,” Mulder presses, staring down at the photo. “My alien baby.” He looks to Scully then, a big smile on his face. “And you can be my alien baby-baby mama.” 

She isn’t impressed.

When he gets home, he sticks the photo on the wall by his bed and lays down, continuing to stare at it.

A rush runs through him at the sight. He’s excited. It was real. In 27 weeks he was about to be a father.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

They have their first phone call at 7:06 pm on a Thursday. Bill Jr answers and after unceremoniously shouting, “Dana, phone!” she hears Mulder’s voice.

“Must be fun living with him,” he says.

“He’s not always this bad. He’s just grumpy. He doesn’t want the baby waking him up at night.”

Her sibling’s reactions to Dana being pregnant had been mixed: Charlie liked the idea of being an uncle, Missy was excited- ready to be the best aunty a baby could ever have. Bill had a sour look on his face, telling Dana she was too young to have a baby and asking if Mulder was going to bother or would it just be down to her and them?

Missy had been the one to jump in and defend Mulder, telling Bill that “of course he would be”, whilst Dana just picked at her food.

“Did you know babies can be born with teeth?” Mulder says down the line.

Caught up in her thoughts, the only reply Dana can give him is.

“What?”

“Yeah,” Mulder says, mistaking her confusion or unknowing. “The doctors take them out so they don’t choke and they’re loose anyway.”

Dana did know that, in fact, but she doesn’t tell Mulder, instead she allows him to continue on.

“And did you know that babies cry even in the womb?” That she didn’t know. “So little Mulder Jr could be crying right now and we wouldn’t even know it.” She doubts it but her hand falls to her stomach anyway. She’s been doing that a lot, lately, mostly to try and feel the kicks and punches. So far there’s been nothing.

“How do you know all this, Mulder?” she asks.

“I bought a book.”

Of course he has.

“Well, I’ve bought lots of books, actually. Some we already had but I wanted to know. I don’t know anything, Scully, and I feel like I should.”

It’s heart-warming to hear how much he cares, to hear the excitement in his voice as he rattles off this fact and that. She’s glad that if anyone had to be the father of her child, it was someone as special and caring as Fox Mulder.

They don’t talk for long. Twenty minutes because she eats dinner at 7:30 and needs to go but before she does, Mulder tells her one last thing, almost sound shy and unsure.

“Igotdabebesumthin…”

She doesn’t quite catch it. “What?”

A bit louder now. “I got the baby something.”

“Mulder, you don’t have any money,” she tells him gently but is smiling all the same.

“I get money off the magazine!”

“What, 50 cents for every copy and you don’t sell that many to begin with,” she teases.

“It’s nothing big,” he says. “I just saw it when I was out.”

Stopping the jokes, she asks. “Okay, what is it?”

“It’s a duck,” he says. Through the phone, it sounds like he’s fumbling with something. “It’s yellow with a blue bowtie and it squeaks.” A bit more fumbling with the phone and his voice is replaced by a squeak. “See?” he says, his voice back.

Her heart melts and tears begin to prick in her eyes.

“Mulder, it’s…” she sniffles.

“Are you crying?”

She wipes at her eyes, embarrassed. “No, it’s just the hormones.” At least that’s what she can blame it on.  
“Mulder, it’s…it’s a really nice thought-“

“It’s too much.” She hears the doubt, the sadness in her voice and has an instant need for it to be gone, for his happiness and excitement to return.

“No, no,” she starts to say. “No, really, it is a really nice thought. Keep it. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“Really?” The joy is back.

“Really,” she confirms. She catches her mother’s eye in the kitchen and looks to the clock. “Mulder, I have to go. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“You’ll see me tomorrow.”

That’s right. School.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.

A knock on his front door comes precisely at 8:00pm.

Mulder grabs the card off the sideboard and takes in a breath before opening the door.

“Happy birthday!” Mulder cries as Scully stands in front of him. He holds the card out to her and invites her in.

“Thank you,” she says, stepping in. 

Mulder closes the door as she rips the envelope open. 

It’s a simple card he chose; one with two bears on it- one of the bears placing a party hat on the other surrounded by a table of food and balloons. Mulder thought it was cute.

She opens it up and begins reading out loud.

“To my Alien Baby-Baby Mama.” He shrugs sheepishly at the look she throws him.

“Happy Birthday! But you know what that means? Only seventeen more weeks to go before our alien is born. Love Mulder.”  


She’s smiling as she closes the card and it sends jolts of happiness through him to know that he- and his card- put that smile on your face.

“You’re counting?” she asks.

Mulder shrugs, “Maybe.” 

She tucks the card back into its envelope, still smiling.

“Thank you,” she says again. “But you really need to stop referring to the baby as an alien.”

“Why?” Mulder asks, leading them towards the basement door. “Can he hear me?”

“You’re the one with all the books, you tell me.”

The books are down in the basement with him. Stacked near the wall, he’s found- or bought- loads of them.

“Gotta be prepared,” he says.

Mulder sits down on the couch- the same couch that their alien baby was conceived upon, something he thinks of all the time and has him smiling.

He smiles fades, however, when he watches Scully struggle to sit down.

“Are you okay?” he asks, unsure.

Through her concentration, she manages to smile a yes.

“Sitting down and getting up have become kinda difficult.”

Right, yeah. Mulder had caught her struggling to stand up from her seat in school, how she waits for everyone to leave before the struggle begins.

She manages and gets herself settled into the cushions.

“I got you a present.” Mulder stands and heads towards the mini freeze and pantry shelf in the corner. He grabs the vanilla ice cream and pickles out of their respective places and walks back to her.

Her eyes light up when she sees them.

“Mulder, I love you!” she shouts, reaching to grab them out of her hands.

It’s just an expression, he tells himself and tries not to let his smile falter.

The pickle jar is opened and immediately the basement is overwhelmed with the sharp smell. It’s worth it if it means he gets to spend time with her.

“So what’s the occasion?” Scully asks when she’s knuckle deep into her ice cream with the pickle, another in her mouth. “Other than my birthday, of course.”

“Well, I won’t be seeing you in school anymore and that’s when I get to see you the most,” he tells her, placing the VSH into the player.

“Why can’t I pick the movie, it’s my birthday.”

“Because you always want to watch horror movies,” he answers, sitting back onto the couch.

“So?” she says. Then a smile is breaking out across her face. “You’re scared of them.”

“No, I’m not,” Mulder says, a bit too fast.

And Scully notices.

“Put one on, then.”

“No.”

“Because you’re scared.”

“Because I want to watch this.”

She falls silent and Mulder hopes that’s the end of their argument. 

She grabs another pickle and is about to dunk it in before muttering.

“That’s because you are scared.”

It’s the final straw and he swipes the pickle jar from beside her. He gives her his due with how quick her reflexes are but he has height as an advance and holds it up high knowing it will be too much of a struggle for her to get it.

(Is it mean? Yes. Does he feel guilty for it? No.)

“Mulder,” she scolds. “Give me back my pickles.”

He shakes his head, stretching higher just in case. “Take back what you said.”

She pouts and it’s adorable. Mulder knows how stubborn she is, knows how hard it is for her to take things back once she’s said it, but her pickles are on the line here.

“Or…” she begins, looking at him through her eyelashes. Oh, she’s good. “You give me my pickles back and we pretend I never said anything.”

But not good enough.

He pretends to think. “Hmm…No.” She’s devastated. “You have to say it.”

She turns away from him, looking annoyed and defeated, trying another tactic.

“I want my pickles.”

“You know what you have to say.”

She zones in on him, frowning. “You should know that you shouldn’t stand in the way of a pregnant woman or her cravings. Especially on her birthday.”

Oh, he’s well aware. Smiling, he begins playing with her. Bringing his arm down just close enough that she should be able to reach over but at the last second holding them back up again.

She gets annoyed each time he does it and it’s adorable, her little huffs and puffs, and insults that come pouring out of her mouth. Death threats, too, he notices but still, Mulder doesn’t give the jar to her.

He does this about three times before she either forgets she’s pregnant, or is taking a risk, and tries to reach up and grab the jar. 

As she does, something seems to happen as her concentration and annoyance fades to shock. 

Worry rushes through his body and discarding the jar to somewhere beside him, he grabs her arms to steady to her.

“What is it?” he asks, fully concerned that something bad has happened.

She frees one of her arms and places a hand on her stomach. A smile replaces the shock, a big smile as she looks at him and Mulder looks from her face to her hand back to her face again, confused.

“She kicked,” she says, her voice full of amazement.

Mulder’s eyes fall to her stomach. He wants to feel it but aside from holding her hand in the hospital, and the hand on her back through school, this is the closest he’s come to touching her.

Touching her stomach just seems too intimate for her but he wants to.

“Can I…” he falters, unable to take his eyes away and swallows. “Can I feel?”

Scully nods, moving her hand and he places the hand not holding her arm anymore onto her stomach, pressing gently like the books told him to.

Minutes pass but another smile passes across Scully’s face as she says.

“There is it.”

And he feels it against his hand. He understands now why she was so amazed by it. It’s incredible. The movement between his hand. That’s his baby under there, moving.

It’s amazing.

“Scully,” she hums in response. “Can I…It is okay if I take you on a date? A real one?”

He has no idea what’s made him ask right at this moment but he’s been wanting to for a while now and whether it was the playfulness of the moment before, or this moment, Mulder has no idea.

She nods. “I’d like that,” she replies shyly.

Mulder smiles, his arm wrapping around her and bringing her closer to him. She adjusts the best she can and settles into his shoulder while he presses a kiss into her hair.

“Mulder,” she says after the only sound is from the TV.

“Hmm.”

“Can I have my pickles back now?”

Mulder laughs, reaching beside him and handing them to her. 

Scully takes her reward, smiling triumphantly. She won.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the birth wasn't as bad as my brain was making it out to be. I'm not personally convinced but hey, you're the readers so you know better than me.

“You know, when you said you wanted to take me on a date, I was expecting more than your basement and pizza.”

“What’s wrong with my basement?” Mulder asks, picking up said slice of pizza and almost shoving the whole thing into his mouth at once. “It’s warm, we have food, you get a sit down…”

Her feet had been hurting her a lot more recently. Something Mulder had gotten the first hand pleasure of listening to Dana complain about it.

“…and I’m letting you pick the movie tonight. What more could you want?”

Dana smiles, her eyes glancing around the room and deciding that this does beat being outside in the cold, standing.

“How’s the baby?”

“She’s good,” Dana says, her hand instinctively falling to her stomach.

“What about the kicking?” 

Dana smiles, fulling away of the kicking and the punching and the general moving around that takes place.

“She kicks and punches a lot. Mostly at night when I’m trying to sleep.” She looks down at her stomach, feeling nothing at the moment. “I think that’s when she’s awake, actually.”

Mulder laughs. “Gets that from me.”

“Well, if that’s her sleeping pattern past her being born, you know who’ll be dealing with her at night.”

Her smile drops when she realises what she’s said. Mulder does, too. They hadn’t discussed what the arrangements will be after the baby is born. However many times Mulder has proclaimed that he wants to be around when she’s here they never journeyed into that conversation, of just how this co-parenting will work.

“I was thinking,” Mulder begins, looking down towards the carpet. “I could convert this basement into a bedroom, get my bed down here. We could put the crib in the corner-“

“Mulder-“

“-and you could both live here.” He looks at her then and she sees the hope in his eyes, the wish that she might agree. “We can’t avoid this forever, Scully.”

Dana looks down, beginning to fiddle with the cuff of her sweater sleeve. “My parents were talking about setting up the crib in my room.”

She hears him sigh. Looking up slightly, she watches him twist so he’s facing forward, hunched over and looking grumpily off to the side.

“I was just hoping that we could all live down here. Do you really want to wake your family up with the baby’s cries at 3am?” Looking over, he catches her eyes. “Do you really want to do this alone?”

No, she doesn’t. She wants him there, wants him involved. She gives the basement another glance, trying to visualise it.

“It’s just for a year, just while we’re still in school,” Mulder says, knowing that she’s thinking about it. “Once we’re done with that, then we can get our own place.” 

It dawns on her suddenly, what he’s saying.

“You really want to live with me?”

He nods, smiling, grabbing hold of her hand limply holding onto her sleeve.

“Yes, Scully.” His other hand comes to hold her hand, too, trapping it in between. “There’s nobody else. I don’t want to date anyone else, I don’t a relationship with anyone else. I have everything I want right here.”

Her and the baby.

She’s touched and surprised and so feeling so incredibly lucky.

“I think I want that, too.”

His lips are on hers all of a sudden. She’s taken aback but soon reciprocates the kiss, melting into him and realising just how much she’s missed this- their first kiss taking place on this very couch.

The baby kicks then, awake and alert and Dana breaks the kiss, giggling slightly as she looks down.

“I think she’s jealous,” she says.

Mulder cocks his head to the side, looking down at her stomach too.

“Looks like I’ll just have to give him a kiss, too.” And he’s there, his lips pressing against the area where the baby just kissed. It’s the most intimate thing she’s ever experienced.

He lays against her, his head not too far from her bump and places a hand on her stomach, rubbing his thumb the area. Sighing, content in this new part of their relationship, her fingers begin brushing through his hair.

“We haven’t came up with any names,” she says.

Mulder moves so head is resting against her ribs, allowing him to look at her.

“Um…I have a name, actually.” She perks up, wanting to hear it.

“So I’m not the first person in the family to be named after an animal,” he says, all serious. “It’s actually a tradition- on my mother’s side. Her brother is called Herron so I was thinking that we call the baby Wolf, you know to stick with that tradition.”

Dana let’s that information sink in, perhaps feeling herself go through the five stages of grief in the process. Wolf was interesting and she wasn’t anyone to knock people’s family traditions but she was hoping for something a bit more…normal.

“Wolf?” she says, half asking, half trying it out.

Mulder nods, his face portraying no emotion.

“Wolf…” she says again. 

The game is up however, when a smile cracks across Mulder’s face and that’s when she realises she’s just been played.

“I thought you were being serious!”

He laughs. “No,” he says shaking his head. “There’s no tradition, I’m just called Fox for the sake of it. I’d never subject my child to that kind of pain.”

Dana smiles, not believing she just fell for that.  
“Seriously, do you have any names?” she asks.

She watches him think, really meaning it this time.

“I’ve always liked Arthur,” he says, shyly.

Arthur…Arthur Mulder. She likes it.

“What about you?” Mulder’s asking. “You’re so insistent that this baby is a girl, what girl names do you have?”

She thinks about that herself. Missy had bought her a book of baby names, going through it one night and rattling off the names she liked to Dana. Names like Amber, Daisy, Summer, Autumn and on and on until Dana had asked if this book was just full of hippy-sounding names and Melissa had been caught out.

Dana hadn’t liked any of the names and it was becoming the biggest stump of her whole pregnancy.

She never realised just how big of a responsibility naming children was. Even asking her mother was no help.

“Just find a name that you like.”

That was just the problem, it felt as though she didn’t like any names.

She thought back to her childhood, to the various toys and dolls she had when she was little. Dolls she named because, as her mother said, she liked the names.

Only now, sixteen-year-old Dana didn’t like those names anymore and she was back to square one.

Until they were in the basement finding a stroller and Dana found something else.

“Missy got this big doll for Christmas one time,” she tells Mulder. “I used to get jealous because she would never let me play with it but it was a pre-named doll, belonging to a collection or something and I found it the other day when we were trying to find my old stroller.” 

The doll’s name had came to her the moment she picked it up. The one name she didn’t even consider before finding it.

“Emily,” she says, sounding it out for the first time. “I like Emily.”

“Emily,” Mulder parrots. He moves his head then, so that he’s hovering above her stomach.

“Do you like that name, Emily?”

The baby kicks and Mulder looks back up to Dana, a massive smile right across his face.

“I think we have a winner.”

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

He’s outlining a Dungeons and Dragons campaign when the call comes through.

It’s Melissa Scully bringing the words of, “Dana’s having contractions.”

Mulder’s eyes immediately shoot up to his calendar. He has the due date circled and today isn’t circled. She still has a month to go.

He tells her that he’ll be there in five minutes and doesn’t even finish the phone call before he’s darting up the stairs and out the door.

She’s getting ready to be loaded into the car when he gets there. She looks petrified, no doubt having the same thought he had when Melissa called. Discarding his bike on the grass, he’s running over to her wrapping her up in his arms.

“It’s too early, Mulder,” she cries into him.

“I know, I know. It’ll be fine, I’m going to be with you the whole time, okay?”

She nods before clutching her tighter as another contraction grips her.

“How far apart was that one?” Mrs Scully asks.

“Like, ten minutes?” says Melissa, standing in the doorway. Mulder didn’t even she was there.

He doesn’t miss the worried look that crosses Mrs Scully’s face, so glad that Scully can’t see it.

He loads her into the back of the car, grabbing her hand and not intending on letting it go until she’s through all this, until that baby is sitting in their arms.

“Mulder, I’m scared,” she says quietly.

It breaks his heart. He’s scared too but he knows one of them has to be strong. He wraps his arms around her tighter, squeezes her hand tighter and keeps his eye on the watch as Mrs Scully instructed him to once they started driving.

“Don’t be. I’m here, your mom’s here. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

The contractions stay at ten minutes apart for the rest of the drive and up till Mrs Scully gets them sorted in the hospital.

Mulder keeps his promise, keeping hold of her hand the entire time as everything around him becomes a blur. He’s asked questions but when they get no answer from him, they ask Scully or her mother the questions.

He overhears them talking, discussing whether there’s time to stop the labour, to see if she can wait two more weeks, get her over that 37 week threshold.

Mulder turns away, focusing his attention back to Scully.

“You okay?” he asks. The hand not holding hers runs through her hair.

She nods, shutting her eyes at the soothing motion. 

“I think they’re gonna try and stop the labour.”

Her eyes are still closed but tears begin to prick at the corner of her eyes as she shakes her head.

“What’s wrong?” Mulder asks.

“I think my waters just broke.”

He squeezes her hand, bringing it up towards his mouth and pressing his lips against it.

“You’re both gonna be okay,” he tells her.

“Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t.”

He stays with her, as promised, through the while thing. As the contractions become frequent, as she’s told to push. He keeps hold of her hand, fingers almost breaking with how tight she grips him, offering words of encouragement when he can. It becomes the best most terrifying day of his life.

But soon, their baby is born and just as soon, she is taken away.

He wants to stay with Scully. He wants to know that she’s going to be okay. He wants to stay by her side just as he promised.

“I don’t want her to be alone,” Scully quietly says.

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“Go!” she says a little louder, pulling her hand out of his grasp. He mourns the loss of it, having held it for so long. “Stay with Emily. Make sure she’s okay.”

Mulder nods, understanding that he’ll lose this battle. So he stands, leans over to kiss Scully’s forehead, and tells her he’ll check on her soon.

It’s the best most terrifying day of is life.


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kinda like the final part but I'm gonna give you an epilogue so it's not the final part. Duuudeeee...I'm obsessed with this universe. So much so that I'm gonna take prompts in this universe so if you have anything you want me to send me you can find on Tumblr as emilydeservesbetter. I love this universe so much and I'm really not ready to part with it so anything you have please send it to me.

It’s 5:37 am, he’s so tired, and Emily looks tiny in her massive incubator. 

He’s been sat here for almost an hour, only having moved once to go to the bathroom then he was right back in this chair.

He doesn’t like seeing her like this, hooked up to a machine, wires everywhere, it’s scary. She should be being held, asleep against Scully, not a floor away from her.

The nurse from earlier comes back in, Mulder thinks he remembers her saying something about being back in an hour, and she is back, checking the machine, checking Emily.

“You’re still here?” she says surprised when she sees him.

He nods. “I don’t want to leave her on her own,” he says.

The nurse nods, smiling.

“Have you let her hold your finger yet?” 

Mulder shakes his head. He wasn’t aware he should have or if he was even allowed to touch her.

“See if her reflexes work,” the nurse says and when Mulder looks at her asking how he does that, she explains. “Press gently on her palm, her fingers should close around yours.”

Slowly, Mulder puts his hand through the hole in the incubator, Emily’s hand is open and he slides his finger over her palm, feeling her soft skin. He does as the nurse told him to, gently pressing down and Emily’s fingers curl around his forefinger, holding tightly in her strong little grip.

Mulder marvels at it, smiling for what feels like the first time all night.

He looks over to the nurse then asking, “Can I talk to her?”

“You should,” she says nodding. “It’ll get her used to your voice.” She turns back to what she was doing.

He moves in closer to the incubator, his finger still in her grip.

“Hey, Emily.” She’s sleeping currently so Mulder’s unsure whether she will hear him or not but he likes to think that she does, even asleep her subconscious is getting used to his voice, getting to know it. “That’s your name, I don’t know if anyone’s told you that yet.” He pauses to look over at the nurse, she’s given them some privacy, messing with something on a table. He turns back to Emily. “I know you’re scared, I am too, but you don’t need to be because you’re getting looked after really well here but you have to help out, too and then we’ll be able to take you home.” He moves in closer, as close as the incubator will let him get and whispers, “Can you do that for me, baby?”

So desperately does he want to reach in and hold her properly, take her to Scully to hold them both, but he can’t.

“How long will she be here for?” he asks.

The nurse turns when she realises he’s talking to her and moves towards him.

“Hopefully you’ll be able to take her home within in a week. We just want to monitor her breathing.”

Mulder nods. A week, that’s shorter than he was expecting.

“Do you have a telephone I can use?”

“In the hall.”

He looks down at Emily and is hesitant to leave her but he needs to ring home, tell them where he is, what’s happened.

“I’ll stay with her,” the nurse says.

Saying thank you, Mulder pulls his finger out from Emily’s hand (missing the feel immediately) and heads out of the room.

He finds the phone easily enough and dials home. After the fourth ring, his mother answers.

Hello?

“Hi, Mom.”

Fox, where are you?

“At the hospital. Scully went into labour early.”

Oh, goodness. Is she okay? How’s the baby?

“Good. They’re both good. Well…Emily has trouble breathing but she could come home in a week.”

Emily.

“Mom, will you ask Samantha to get a bag together for me and to get Dad to drop her off at the hospital before school?”

What about you? Are you going to school?

“No.” He made up his mind on the way over to Scully’s house after Melissa called him.

Okay. I’ll give them a ring and let them know. What do you want Samantha to pack?

“My camera, some clean clothes- tell her to grab whatever- and on my bed there should be a yellow duck, tell her to get that, too.”

Okay. We’ll probably visit later. I want to see my granddaughter.

Mulder smiles at that. “Sure. I’ll talk to you later. Tell Sam I’ll meet her outside by the entrance.”

They say their goodbyes and Mulder hangs up. With a deep breath, he heads back towards Emily’s room.

When he enters the nurse is gone and Mrs Scully sits in his seat.

“Hi, Mrs Scully.”

“Hello, Fox.”

Mulder stands on the other side of the incubator, resuming his vigil over his daughter.

“How’s Dana?” he asks.

“She’s good. She’s sleeping currently.” Mrs Scully smiles to herself. “It took a lot of convincing but she finally fell asleep.”

Mulder frowns. “Why didn’t she want to sleep?”

“I guess she was scared of missing something. She kept hounding the nurses about updates on Emily.”

Mulder smiles. Yep, that sounded like Scully. She was probably driving herself mad with worry.

“You should go see her,” Mrs Scully tells him. “There’s nothing you can do for Emily right now.”

His smile fades and he looks solemnly down at Emily. “I know,” he says. “I don’t want her to be alone.” 

It occurs to him then that he’s been repeatedly what Scully told him after Emily was born. I don’t want her to be alone. It’s become a mantra he’s repeated to every one he’s spoken to.

“She won’t be. I’m here. Go.”

He does as he’s told, saying goodbye to Emily and that he’ll be back to see her soon, and leaves.

.:.:.:.:.:.

Scully’s been moved, something that Mrs Scully failed to mention but Mulder doesn’t hold that against her. He asks the reception desk and they tell him she’s in room 501. 

He finds the room easily enough. It’s secluded, it’s own private room. A lamp is on in the corner, casting the room in a dim orange glow. Scully sleeps, wrapped up in the comforter. Mulder edges towards the bed, taking the chair and pulling it closer to Scully. 

He regards her, watching a strand of hair blow away from her face with each outbreath. 

He reaches over, gently pushing it away, yet not gently enough. The action has woken her. She shifts, eyes blinking open, still tired. Mulder feels guilty for waking her.

Their eyes meet and she’s surprised to see him there.

“Mulder. Why aren’t you with Emily?”

He chuckles despite himself. “Your mom’s with her. She told me to go to you.”

She relaxes why she realises that Emily is okay. Already her instincts are strong.

“How is she? Emily.” 

“She doing good,” Mulder tells her honestly. “She has some breathing problems so they have her on a ventilator but she should be okay to go home within a week.”

He sees the relief spread through her.

“I want to see her.”

“I know.” He reaches beneath the covers, blindly finding her hand and grasping hold of it, needing to have some part of him touching her.

“Do you know when you can?” he asks.

“Tomorrow, maybe the next day.” 

Mulder nods. “How are you?”

“Sore,” Scully says with a grimace. “Everywhere.”

He nods again. “Listen, I can’t stay long-“

She immediately looks worried. “Where are you going?”

“Just outside. Sam is bringing me a bag.”

“You’ll be back?” she asks.

“Yeah,” he says smiling. “I’ll be back.” 

He kisses the top of her head and lets go of her hand, heading towards the door before she’s stopping him.

“Mulder.”

He turns, hand on the handle. 

“I love you.”

He feels like jelly, letting the words run through him, his brain processing them. A giddiness washes over him.

With a goofy, happy smile he says back, “I love you, too, Scully.”

He leaves, shutting the door behind him, the happiest he’s ever felt.

.:.:.:.:.:.

She floats in and out of sleep. Time doesn’t exist anymore, it stopped existing the moment her first contraction came. It feels so long ago.

She gave birth to a baby she has yet to see, yet to hold. Everyone will get to touch her, look at her before she- the baby’s mother- does. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair.

She’s been felt alone in this room for the most part. A nurse came in to take her milk some time ago and didn’t return. Another came in to check on her but that was that.

She’s exhausted but she wouldn’t fall asleep. She needed to know how Emily was. She wouldn’t rest until she got her answers.

Eventually it took her Mom telling her that she would sit with Emily, foregoing her own sleep, if it meant Dana would sleep. 

And Mulder. It felt so good to see him after what felt so long. She worried she’d been a bit harsh with him in the delivery room but she needed him to go with Emily, she needed eyes on the inside, someone she trusted who she knew would tell her the truth.

Her baby was going to be okay, she could cry with relief. One week and they should be out of here. Scully hoped she never had to be in a hospital again.

The door opens and Mulder walks in again. She smiles at him, remembering what she told him, what he told her back.

They love each other. They had the proof of that love lying a floor below them.

“Hi,” she says as he approaches.

“Hi,” he says back, sitting in that chair and reaching for her hand, something he’s become accustomed to over the night. 

She wishes he would lie next to her. What she would do to curl into his embrace, breath him in and let him hold her.

But rules are rules.

“I’ve got something to show you.” 

In his hand he holds a polaroid and her breath catches in her throat when she realises who it’s a polaroid of.

“Emily,” she says when she sees it. Her baby girl attached to wires and a ventilator.

Mulder slouches over, leaning against her and her fingers mindlessly come up to play with his hair as she looks at the photo.

She begins crying.

“I tried to get her to wave to you but I don’t think she understands instructions yet.”

Scully laughs through her tears. The photo was a nice gesture but it’s just strengthened her want to see her daughter in person. Tomorrow was too far away.

“I got something else to,” he moves off her and Scully wipes away her tears. He pulls out the duck he bought, holding it out towards her.

“They won’t let me put it in there with her in case she hurts herself with it,” Scully takes it from his hands, looking at it. She’s seen it before, remembers the conversation on the phone when Mulder first told her about it, remembers him saying it squeaks. Her thumbs find the ball in the chest area and squeezes the toy. Sure enough it squeaks. More tears fall as she laughs, a lump caught in her throat.

“Hey,” Mulder says gently, his thumb coming up to wipe away her tears. “Emily’s gonna be alright. She’s strong like you.”

Scully sniffs, believing his words. She will be fine.

“Mulder, will you hold me?” she asks.

“In the…?”

She nods. “They don’t come in,” she tells him, referring to the nurses.

He pushes the chair away, slips off his shoes and climbs into the bed with her. As soon as he’s settled, she rests her head against his chest and his finger comb through her hair. She holds and photo of Emily and the duck in her hands, her gaze set on them both.

Her family, she thinks. She remembers how scared she was, in the bathroom in school, holding the evidence of her mistake her in hand, Ellen waiting on the other side, wondering what was taking her so long.

It was never mistake. She was married, she had a baby, she was happy and secure, more than she had ever been in her life. 

She falls asleep soon enough against Mulder’s chest, Emily’s duck under her chin, the photo of Emily slack in her hand. 

She wouldn’t change any of it. 

.:.:.:.:.:.

After two days, she finally gets to meet her daughter.

The ventilator has been removed- most of the time. Emily still needs it every now and then but for the most part she’s breathing on her own which is good news.

Scully hasn’t left the room in hours. She touches every part of her daughter that she can reach. Mulder tells her about her strong reflex, and Scully tests it out herself. Her happiness when Emily’s fingers wrapped around her own was beyond words. 

She was so happy. So happy with her little family.

People come and go. Even her dad cracks a smile when he first sees Emily.

And Emily gets to know a lot of faces. Both her grandparents, both her aunts. She only meets Charlie, Bill still not having come around to the idea of his baby sister having a baby but Scully isn’t worried about that.

Mulder tells her stories, mainly is D&D story and says that he’s going to teach Emily how to play as soon as. 

Mulder disappears on the fourth day. He’s gone for a while. She misses him when he’s gone, having got used to him being around so much. She knows Emily misses him too, her blue eyes searching the room for him. She cries a lot more when he’s not there, too, something Scully tries not to be jealous of.

He’s back, however, just after visiting hours end, walking into the room. Emily’s asleep, having finally settled down after being fed.

“Where did you go?” Scully asks quietly as Mulder sits down next to her.

He doesn’t answer, instead asking, “Give me your left hand.”

Frowning, curious, she holds her hand out towards him.

He grasps it, holding her ring finger in his fingers. Scully gasps when she sees it. The diamond gleams up at her.

“Mulder…how?” she asks, completely surprised.

“I estimated you and Sam had the same sized hands. I dragged her to the store and made her try on the rings. She protested, I owe her a load of snacks, but…” He looks at hesitantly. “Do you like it?” 

She can’t take her eyes off of it. “Mulder I love it. But how did you get the money?”

“Well…” he looks away, cautiously. “We may be in a lot of debt.” He smiles and shrugs as if it’s no big deal.

“Mulder!” she says a little too loudly and Emily stirs before falling back asleep again.

Her attention briefly diverted to her baby, she turns back to Mulder who has a full blown grin across his face.

“I’m joking…kinda. My parents gave me the money. I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to give you a proper ring.”

“Mulder, we don’t need rings.”

“I know, but…” He entwines his fingers in hers, bringing them towards him. “I want everyone to know that you’re mine.” 

He brings their hands up towards his lips, kissing it and looking straight at her.

Happiness comes to sixteen-year-olds girls who don’t make mistakes.


	6. Chapter Six [Epilogue]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay now we’re at the final chapter/part/instalment. Meet my longest fic ever 5k words. I have never written that many words for a one shot before let a alone a chapter but here we are. This is a fic of its own honestly, it’s just attached to this universe. I don’t really have much to say other than I’ve really enjoyed this universe and that I’m still sticking to what I say in the last part- send me prompt in this universe and I will write them, this is probably my favourite universe I’ve ever written in, I love it so much.

There’s a warm weight trying to squeeze against her, a head that bumps her chin, and cold feet trying to find warmth between her bare legs.

Emily’s climbed out of her crib again.

“Hey Emi,” Scully hears Mulder mumble.

She slipping back into subconsciousness when she feels a pull against her pyjama top. 

“No Emily,” she says, taking her daughter’s hands in her own to prevent her from tugging at the top.

“I want milk.”

For the past three weeks Scully had been slowly weaning Emily. It was going a lot soother than she expected, morning is full of distractions, replace breastmilk and snuggles with cow’s milk and cuddles and morning goes by with no hassle. Naps were a bit harder but followed the same pattern, night feeds were still a thing for now.

The system worked nine times out of a ten. The times it didn’t work was when Emily was sleepy but couldn’t fall asleep.

“Do you want Daddy to make you some big girl milk?” Scully asks, opening her eyes just in time to see Emily pout- a trait she got from Mulder- and shake her head.

“That milk’s yucky.” She frees her hands from Scully’s grasp and begins clawing at her t-shirt again.

She’s tired and wants to give in but Emily had been doing so well that to give in now seems like a waste of three weeks.

“Mulder, will you make Emily some milk, please?” she asks.

“No! I want your milk,” Emily whines at the same time Mulder leaves the bed.

“How about we cuddle while we wait for Daddy to bring your big girl milk, yeah?” Scully tries bargaining.

Emily doesn’t look convinced but she moves towards Scully anyway, snuggling against her.

She’s almost drifting off when Emily speaks again.

“Daddy heat milk up?” 

“I’m sure he will, baby.”

Mulder comes back five minutes later, bottle of milk in his hand. He climbs back into the bed, handing the bottle to Emily.

“There you go, Em.”

Emily takes it and Scully falls back asleep for another hour.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

She places Emily down on the counter.

“What do you want for breakfast, Emily?”

“Cookies,” the child says.

Scully sighs, the third day in a row Emily has asked for cookies for breakfast.

“You can’t have cookies, baby.” She roots in the fridge, pulling out a pack of eggs. “How about eggs?” she asks holding the pack towards Emily.

Emily shakes her head slowly. “Cookies.”

“You can have cookies when we’re out,” Scully tells her, putting the eggs back in the fridge.

Nearby Mulder’s bagels pop up in the toaster, startling both Scully and Emily. Mulder is over in seconds, taking them out. At least one of them knows what their eating this morning.

Seeing the bagels being placed on Mulder’s plate, Emily points towards it.

“Daddy,” she says.

“You want bagels like Daddy?”

Emily nods and Mulder is already a step ahead of her, pushing the lever of the toaster down.

.:.:.:.:.:.

She showers while Emily eats. A fifteen minute reprieve from her daughter.

She loves Emily more than she thought she could ever love anything but approaching two-years-old, Scully fears her once impeccably behaved baby girl was going to become possessed by the Terrible Twos.

With Mulder gone most days, it was just her and Emily. Occasionally her mom and Melissa would help out but Scully didn’t want to seem like she was depending on them. Since Emily was born, Scully had to need to prove to everyone that she could do it, that she wasn’t just a baby caring for a baby, she was a mother and she could live up to the responsibility of being one.

Even Mulder had proved himself capable. He was afforded more immature moments than her but he never let it impede on his ability to be a father. He helped out when he could and they fell into an easy routine. The dark early days he proved to be enough when Emily refused to suckle, refused to let Scully pick her up, refused to let her bond with her. Their daughter had just wanted Mulder and Scully had given up. She pumped rather than physically breast feed and Mulder had been left to do it all- feed the baby, change her diaper, play with her, Scully was just the sustenance provider.

Now she and Emily get along just fine, once they were over that initial hurdle, and now they were best friends.

Scully exits the shower, immediately grabbing her ring from the counter and putting it back on her finger. It still shined as brightly as it did two years ago and that’s how Scully intended on it staying.

Rumours had sparked all around the school when she returned wearing it not that it bothered Scully, rumours had been circling around the building since her baby bump became visible, questions on who the father was and Did you really expect Dana Scully to be the first one pregnant? No, I didn’t either. They could write SLUT across her locker in red capital letters as much as they liked, Scully was never going to rise to it, she had bigger things on her mind than what immature school kids thought of her.

“Scully,” Mulder calls through the door. “Em’s done with her food. Do you want me to dress her?”

Sometimes he could be amazing.

“Yes, please,” she calls back through the door. “Her clothes are already out on the bed.”

They were out today, buying paint for Emily’s new room.

The decision to give Emily her own room came when Mulder’s parents moved out a year ago, leaving them the house. Initially, they were resigned to the basement and it had worked having Emily, still a newborn at the time, right beside them, not having to go far, everything they needed could fit downstairs with them and rarely did they have to bother anyone upstairs.

But Emily had began to grow, like any child does, and the being confined to the basement just wasn’t good enough for anyone anymore.

They didn’t have many options, too young and broke to even rent a place of their own at seventeen, they intended on just making do with the basement until their options widened.

Until one dinner time when Teena announced that a house just down the street had opened up and they were thinking of moving into that, giving their current house to Mulder. 

The deal was they, along with Scully’s parents, would help them out until they were done with school, then it was down to them.

Well, school had ended and it was down to them to support themselves now. Mulder worked, Scully looked after Emily. It was old-fashioned but it worked and Scully saw no issue with it, for now.

College was to be postponed for another year, too. Wait until Emily was old enough to go into pre-school or be able to stay with her grandparents for more than however long the milk lasted. They would stay in Maryland, too, and hopefully figure the rest out at a later date.

Now, though, it was about decorating Emily’s new room. 

The child hadn’t been excited about the prospect of her own room no matter how much Mulder and Scully tried to big it up to her, she liked Mommy and Daddy’s room, why couldn’t she stay there?

Scully hoped that by allowing her to pick the room design Emily would grow more keen to the idea.

She exits the bathroom, walking towards her bedroom and upon opening the door, she is greeted by a partially dressed Hurricane Emily.

“Mommy! Me and Daddy saw Cookie Monster when we eat our bagels.”  
Sesame Street was currently Emily’s favourite show, her favourite character was the Cookie Monster and he is the reason Emily asks for cookies every morning.

Scully bends to pick Emily up, setting her on her hip and bringing her back over to bed where Mulder sits holding a pair of socks in his hand.

“When you ate your bagels, Emily,” Scully corrects, putting her down standing on the bed. There were no worries about Emily’s speech development, she was actually very intelligent, having been able to string sentences together for a while now.

It had been something Scully had worried about at the beginning. Emily was a premature baby- a late premature baby, but one all the same- and while the probability of the risks presented to premature babies were low for her they were still risks all the same.

But aside from running out of breath a little quicker when she got excited, Emily was functioning as any other child, developing around the same average time as other children, there were no worries in that department.

She hadn’t quite mastered grammar yet, however.

“What did you see?” Scully asks Emily as she helps Emily slide into her dungarees and buckles them up, Mulder puts her socks on.

Emily proceeds to tell her how Elmo stole Cookie Monster’s cookies and Cookie got sad and then Elmo apologised and gave them back to him.

She’ll test her like this sometimes, make sure that she’s paying attention, taking in what she’s seeing on the TV.

“How did you know Cookie was sad?” Scully asks, another test.

“Um…” She watches as Emily tries to find the words for what she knows. “He…he…” 

“He sat on his own, didn’t he?” Mulder says, helping her out.

Emily turns towards him at the sound of his voice, nodding her head quickly and turning back to Scully.

“He sat on his own and looked like this…” She does her best impression of a sad face that makes Scully laugh and melt at how adorable she looks.

“It’s not funny, Mommy!” Emily admonishes in a voice that sounds vaguely similar to her own when she tells Emily off for doing something she shouldn’t.

“You’re right,” Scully says, correcting herself. “It’s not funny.” She strokes her hand through Emily’s bed head. She still needs to get dressed and tackle Emily’s unruly hair and they don’t have a lot of time left before they need to leave.

“Why don’t you go back downstairs with Daddy and watch more Cookie Monster and I’ll get dressed, okay?”

Emily nods, climbing down from the bed and grabbing hold of Mulder’s hand.

“Come on, Daddy,” Emily says.

“I’ll need your strong muscles to pull me up, Em,” he says, pretending to struggle to get off the bed. “I’m getting too old.”

Scully rolls her eyes but she’s warmed by it all the same. Emily uses her “muscles” and pulls Mulder up and the two leave the room leaving Scully on her own.

.:.:.:.:.:.

Within the hour they have made it to Home Depot browsing the paint section while Emily happily babbles away Quacky in the cart.

Public outings were always something of a tense situation. When Emily was younger they received a lot of disdainful tuts, shaking heads, and a lot of stares. Scully had tried to ignore it but she never went anywhere with just Emily.

Now it was easier to bare. The stares still came but Scully learned not to care about them. She was happy, her baby was baby and that was all that mattered.

“I think yellow,” Scully says, beelining for the coloured paint.

“Why yellow?” Mulder asks.

She stares at him like he’s stupid. He is stupid.

“It’s her favourite colour,” she answers pointedly.

Mulder chuckles. “It’s your favourite colour, you mean.” He looks down at Emily who is happy in her own make-belief world.

“Emi, what’s your favourite colour?”

“Yellow,” the girl says without missing a beat.

An I told you so look appears across Scully’s face. 

“Only because it’s your favourite colour,” Mulder mutters yet loud enough for Scully to hear it.

She’s about to grab the yellow paint before she clocks the white shades above it. She looks towards Mulder who snacks on sunflower seeds, an idea in her mind.

She pushes the tub back onto the shelf and Mulder looks at her questioningly. She ignores him, her attention on Emily.

“Emi,” she calls and Emily looks at her. “What if, instead of painting your room yellow, I painted it white and covered it in sunflowers?” 

Emily nods, seemingly excited by that prospect. Sunflowers had become Emily’s favourite flowers ever since she found out Mulder eats the seeds. That had led to some very interesting conversations with Emily believing that if she ate a seed a sunflower would grow inside her. Instead they had planted it outside in the garden and once it was “all big” (as Emily had said) it would be her responsibility to care for it.

“And who’s going to draw these sunflowers?” Mulder asks.

“I will,” Scully says, grabbing two tubs of white paint, two tubs of yellow, a medium-sized tub of brown paint, and finally a smaller tub of green.

They buy fairy lights in another store and with Emily’s toddler bed on the way, she was looking forward to decorating the room.

They had the weekend to do it, with Maggie having Emily over for a sleepover. Scully had been cautious of the idea at first. Emily had only been over at her parents’ for a few hours and never had she stayed there (without Scully also there). This was going to be a first for all of them and Scully hoped Emily was going to be okay with it.

There was another thing that an Emily-free night would open up for Mulder and Scully, and Scully was still unsure whether her thoughts should venture down that path yet.

.:.:.:.:.:.

Bathing with Mommy had become something of a treat. Emily loves water and there had been plans to take her to the swimming baths one day for now, though, Emily is just happy playing in a bubble bath. It’s easier to bathe her like this, rather than Scully kneeling and leaning over the edge. They cuddle after all the cleaning is done until their skin has pruned in the warm water or until that warm water has gone cold.

“You excited to sleep at Grandma’s, baby?” Scully asks.

Emily nods but Scully isn’t convinced. Usually her baby was as happy as a clam in the bath, even happier if Scully was joining her, but tonight she had been quiet and subdued, not playing much with the bath toys and barely laughed when Scully booped her on the nose with shampoo. They were all signs that something wasn’t right.

“Can Quacky come?” Emily asks.

“Of course. You can take whoever you like.”

“Can I take you?”

So this is what’s up with her.

“Oh Emi,” Scully coos bringing her daughter closer to her. “You like Grandma, you’ll be fine without me.”

Still, Emily isn’t convinced.

“Want me to tell you a secret?” Scully says and that gets Emily’s attention. 

“Grandma’s taking you to a Jungle Gym tomorrow.”

Emily’s eyes light up. “Really?”

“Yep. But you gotta act surprise when Grandma tells you that. She can’t know that I told you, okay?”

Emily nods, “I promise, I promise.” 

It’s done the trick and Emily seems a lot happier.

Maggie knocks on the door at 7:30. Scully finishes getting the last of the diaper contents together before picking up Emily who’s just spent the last 40 minutes watching Sesame Street and receiving “the best head scratches” from Mulder- Review left by Emily Scully-Mulder.

“Ready to go, baby?” Scully asks, bending to pick her up.

“Bye-bye, Emi,” says Mulder, pressing a kiss to Emily’s head. “See you Sunday.”

Emily sleepily waves back to him as Quacky’s foot finds its way into her mouth.

“She’s had milk,” Scully says upon opening the door and after the greetings. She passes the diaper bag over this. “There’s another bottle in there if she fusses. “She’s been bathed so all you need to do really is put her to bed. She hasn’t napped today so she should be tired.” Maggie nods, holding her arms out and Scully is suddenly hesitant to hand Emily over. 

“Um…she has cow’s milk in the morning, it’s called her big girl milk, if you call it anything else she won’t want to drink it.” 

Another nod from Maggie.

“If there are any problems, call me, I’ll be over straight away.”

Another nod. “Dana?”

“Yes?”

“Can I take Emily now?”

Right, she was still holding her. 

“Bye-bye, Baby. Have fun with Grandma.” Emily’s grip tightens on Scully and Scully whispers into her ear. “Remember the Jungle Gym.” Emily’s grip loosens and Scully is able to hand her over.

She watches them go, waving to Emily before her mom and daughter go out of sight.

She closes the front door praying Emily will be alright tonight.

When she re-enters the living room the channel has been switched to some movie on mute and Mulder is scribbling into a notepad.

She eyes him coolly and walks towards the couch, sitting down upon it cross-legged. She leans into him.

“What you doing?” she asks.

“Brainstorming campaign ideas,” he answers, still engrossed in the notebook and whatever he’s scribbling down. “Thinking of getting the boys down and doing another session.” He looks towards her before turning back to the book. “You’re free to join if you want.”

She nuzzles into his bare arm, smiling. “And what do we do with Emily?”

He shrugs. “She can play, too.”

Scully hums her eyes shutting as she continues to nuzzle finding herself quite content.

“It’s quiet without her, isn’t it?” Mulder almost whispers. His pencil has stopped moving and the room has gone quiet besides the occasional noise of the pipes.

It was quiet in a presence-lacking kind of way. Emily would be in bed by now but her presence would still linger in the room, would still wander the house reminding them that she was still here. Now she was gone for the night, that presence had gone with her.

“I just hope she’s good for my mom,” Scully says remembering how she had clutched onto her.

“She will be.” He closes the book, pushing it to one side and sits back against the couch, bringing his arm around her. Scully adjusts, uncrossing her legs and curling them beneath her to lean against him more comfortably. “She’s a good kid, Scully.” 

Yes, she was. A few hiccups on some days but for the most part, Emily was a good, well-behaved kid. 

She smiles. “Wonder where she gets that from?”

“I always assume from you.”

Scully snorts. “I doubt it. I was a terror with a speciality in running off.”

Mulder laughs. “Well, when Emily starts I’ll know who to blame.”

Scully giggles before taking a deep breath and sighing.

“So what do we do now?”

All day she had been trying to work out how to ask him. Tell him that she’s okay now, she’s ready, and that it won’t be like the first time they tried.

“Mulder, if you want…” she starts, trying to find the words. “We can try. I…I think I’m ready now.”

She doesn’t look at him so she doesn’t see the realisation of what she’s saying- trying to say- dawn on him. She hears it, though.

Oh.

“Well if you want to, Scully. I don’t want to feel like you’ve been pressured or-“

She looks up at him then to find him staring at her as she interrupts.

“No, it’s fine.” She hops up from the couch, quickly, intending on getting this awkward asking moment over with.

“Well, if you’re sure…” Mulder says, beginning to rise from the couch himself.

Yes, she’s sure because if he keeps asking she might not be.

There’s an awkwardness as they enter the bedroom. One would think they hadn’t done with this.

“So how do you-“ She’s on him, fast, allowing no time for gentle kisses, her lips are on his, her tongue in his mouth and her hands are already working on the button of his jeans.

A mantra in her head: I want this, I want this, I want this.

And Mulder is trying to keep up. He’s that awkward fifteen year old again when Scully threw herself at him in a similar manner, unsure of what to do with his hands, where to put them.

That encounter was quick, what was supposed to be a throwaway moment of drunken recklessness between two teenagers who had a house to themselves.

He doesn’t want this moment to be like that moment, and Scully knows that but any slowness, any moment that isn’t rushed and over with before her brain can start thinking has her doubting herself. I want this turns into I don’t know if I want this even if she knows deep down she does want this.

But Mulder doesn’t know that. Mulder doesn’t know about the inner struggle she’s currently having with herself and pulls away, halting her.

“Scully, stop.” 

She stops and those first blossoming thoughts of doubt come blooming in. 

“We don’t have to do this now,” he says and his hands are still around her shoulders holding her away from him. “We’re gonna have loads of times in the future.”

She swallows. “You don’t want this…” she says quietly looking towards the floor. She should leave, go to her mother’s and camp out there with Emily until Sunday as well.

“No, no.” He uses the hold he has on her shoulders to bring her into his embrace. “No, I want this more than anything. The question is, do you want it?”

She’s fighting his embrace. 

“Yes, of course, why do you think-“

But he stills her by holding her tighter.

“Do you really want it?”

She stops trying to fight and thinks. She does. She does want it. She nods.

He brings her away from him and smiles and she smiles back.

The air around them stops feeling awkward and his eyes fall to her lip and slowly he presses them against hers. It’s slow and gentle, everything she didn’t want it to be seconds ago until his tongue is running along her lower lip and she parts them, allowing him in.

He sets the pace, still going slow just as their tongues greet each other. A surge of heat pools below and the pace hurries, whether from her or from Mulder, Scully has no idea but he bends lower, hands wrapping around her thighs as he hoists her up, her legs wrapping around his waist.

The kiss breaks only when he places her down on the bed. She watches as he pulls off his t-shirt, throwing it off to the side, before working on his jeans, finishing the job Scully started.

She follows his lead, taking off her sweater and leaving her in an unsexy-yet-very-comfortable cotton bra. She gives him a shy smile.

Clad in only his boxers now, he kneels before her, his hand soothing up and down her leg, the action comforting.

“You can keep it on if you’re worried you’ll leak.”

That had been what happened the first time. Too much stimulation on her breast and her milk had gone everywhere, not helping the already increasingly uncomfortable experience.

But Scully shakes her head, beginning to remove the item.

“It shouldn’t be so bad this time,” she says.

Mulder smiles, rising slightly to kiss her once. “Whatever works for you.” He resumes kissing her, letting him lay her down on the bedcovers. 

Their tongues play with each other for a bit, picking up where the pace left off only moments before. 

He breaks the kiss, proceeding downwards, sucking at the sweet spots he had found during their second time at this.

Mulder moves away from her neck, continuing his path. He stops when he gets to her breasts and nuzzles one of them.

“I love your tits.” He said that last time, too, but this time Scully feels like he actually means it.

“Perks of having babies, I guess.” She lets out a breathy sigh, closing her eyes as his tongue circles her nipple, her hand falling to his head and combing through his hair, so grateful to be able to finally feel something there again.

But then he latches on and begins to suck and oh no.

Her eyes dart open. “Mulder, you’ll-“ But it’s too late, a tingling sensation she’d been feeling lately whenever she nursed Emily is back and she knows what that means.

Mulder does, too, as his eyes widen and he begins to suck more eagerly.

She falls back, another sigh saying, “That’s Emily’s.”

Mulder unlatches, chin resting against her ribcage as he looks up at her.

“Emily’s not here.” And presses a kiss against the nipple.

Scully hums in agreement.

“I understand now why she gets so upset when you tell her she can’t have any.” He hovers above her. “I’d be freaking out, too.”

Scully just stares at him, deciding that he’s been talking too much.

“Mulder, shut up and fuck me.”

A shit-eating grin passes across his face. He gets down close to her ear and whispers.

“Okay, Mommy.”

She knees him in the ribs for that.

.:.:.:.:.:.:.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, Scully, I’m curious to see these artistic skills you claim to have.”

Mulder stands in the middle of his childhood bedroom holding two tubs of white paint.

“I don’t claim to have any artistic skills.”

Scully takes one tub of paint away from him.

“You want to decorate the walls with sunflowers.”

She opens the tub up, grabbing a paint brush.

“They’re just sunflowers, Mulder,” she says beginning to dip the paint brush into the paint. “It doesn’t take an artistic genius paint them.” She starts on painting the wall.

They agreed that Emily would move into Mulder’s bedroom, it was bigger than Samantha’s and they felt that maybe Emily would be more at ease in there knowing that it had been her Daddy’s before hers.

“Are we even going to get this room painted in this weekend?” Mulder asks from across the room.

They split the walls- Scully would do the back wall and the window wall, Mulder would do the opposite wall and the wall nearest the door.

“No,” Scully answers. “I’m hoping we can get the walls finished before Em comes back but the sunflowers will have to be done another time.”

“Are you going to have the time to do them?” They had gotten Emily psyched up for the sunflowers and they both didn’t want to burst her bubble by not going ahead with them after all.

“Yeah, Emily can sit in the room while I do them or my mom can come over and watch her. It’s not like this where she’ll probably knock over the paint and get herself covered in it.”

That was the main reason why Emily had slept over at her mother’s in the first place. She couldn’t be trusted to just sit in a corner and play, she would get curious and when Emily gets curious it often leads to trouble.

Mulder chuckles, remembering something. 

“Like when she was 18 months old and we let her play her in the garden and she decided she was going to take a mud bath instead?”

Scully groans at the memory which just makes Mulder laugh even harder. It had rained all day every day for a solid week and on the last day of that week the sun decided it was going to shine so they let Emily play outside (something she had wanted to do all week) What they didn’t realise was at the bottom of the garden a giant mud puddle at formed and, naturally, Emily had found it.

Mulder swore he only went inside to get some orange juice for two seconds and when he returned, Emily was covered head to toe in mud.

Scully wanted to die when she saw her whilst Mulder and Emily just laughed and Emily kept repeating pig and pointing to herself. Apparently she found out pigs take mud baths when they were too warm. 

Mulder had only continued to laugh which had encouraged Emily more. She told Mulder to stay outside until he had calmed himself down and took Emily to the bathroom not knowing where to even start to clean her.

“You’re laughing but you weren’t the one who had to shower her,” Scully says, even after four months she doesn’t see the humour in it. 

“I would’ve helped but you locked me outside.” 

“Cause you were laughing and Emily thought that made it okay.” 

Mulder shakes his head, not agreeing with her. “It was funny, though,” he mutters to himself.

As they paint they tell each other stories of Emily’s two years on with earth, reminding each other of little moments, telling each other of moments they might have missed. It’s a nice walk down memory lane, to see how far they’ve come as parents as they paint their daughter’s room and talk about their daughter.

They finally finish in the early hours of Sunday, three coats, and two empty tubs of white paint. The toddler bed was arriving later today and that meant dismantling the crib but that was a job for later, the only thing Scully wanted to do was sleep.

Emily returns around lunchtime, bursting through the front door shouting.

“Mommy! Daddy! Grandma taked me to Monkey Business!”

Scully laughs ignoring the questioning look her mother gives her and pulls Emily put onto her lap.

“Really?” she says with feign surprise. “Was it fun?”

Emily nods her head furiously. “And I cutted my finger, look.” She forces her finger in front of Scully’s face, almost taking an eye out. Scully laughs nervously, taking Emily’s little hand in her own and inspecting the band-aided finger.

“How did that happen?” Scully asks Maggie more than Emily.

“It’s just a paper cut but she insisted on me giving her a band-aid,” her mom tells her.

“I was brave. I didn’t cry.” Emily looks at her finger, running her other finger over it. “Is my sunflowers ready now?”

Scully strokes her hair. “Not yet, baby. We only had time to do the background but tomorrow, when Daddy’s at work, we can start on them and you can watch, yeah?”

Emily nods her head, pleased with that idea.

“Hey Em,” says Mulder catching Emily’s attention. “Just no paint baths, okay?”

Emily giggles, remembering the mud baths. “I promise,” in a voice that sounds like she doesn’t promise at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who read and supported this. I'm amazed at how popular it is but I appreciate it so much.


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